Living In Danger: The Spatial Practices In The Pre-industrial Pitch Mill Site In Early Modern Oulu, Finland

Summary

In the early 17th century the coastal towns in the present-day northern Finland’s Gulf of Bothnia, at that time a part of Swedish kingdom, became home to the pre-industrial mills manufacturing pitch by boiling tar. Producing pitch by fire was a dangerous process as tar was a highly flammable material, so the pitch mills were often founded on the islands or secluded places outside the inhabited urban area. This poster discusses the spatial practices of the pitch mill society and how the physical space of Pikisaari pitch mill area in the town of Oulu was organized in the face of a range of dangers.